Spirituality and Economics, The Position of Spirituality in the Islamic Model of Economic Education and Training of Youth

Nowadays many countries started to develop some models of economic education for improving the economic knowledge of precollege students. The typical model of economic education promotes a “neoclassical model” of rational economic behavior,” that leads to self-interest maximization. The promotion of a hedonistic logic of rational decision-making, however, might crowd out morality and spirituality as important teachings of religions. Looking for a spiritual model of economic education, we could form a dialogue between Christian and Muslim scholars on basic religious economic content standards. The current paper tries to explore an Islamic model of economic education and training and analyze its effect on spiritual development of children and youth. It is conjectured that the Islamic model of economic training is intended to improve spiritual rationality by the aid of some Islamic economic rules and policies. The Institution of Zakah, for instance, is intended to purify those who give this Islamic tax, whereas traditional taxes are obligatory and target no spiritual goal. Attention to the halal and tayyib (pure) income in the Islamic model of economic education and training is also a strategy for improving the logic of spiritual rationality in kids.